Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-04-08
BILL NYE's PASS.
Lines on Returning the Precious
Document to its Generous
Giver.

Under date of March 30, 1887, the
heart-brokcn Bill Nye addresses the
following open epistle to the general
passenger agent of the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe Railroad, through
the columns of the Chicago Inter-
Ocean:
DEAR Sir: enclose herewith an
nual pass No. Q. OBS for selfand fami-
ly over your justly celebrated road
during the year 1887. / also return
your photograph aud the letters you
have written me during the past five
years. Will you kindly return mine !?
And so this brief and beautiful ex-
perience is to end and each must go
his own way hereafter,
Alasl
10 you this may be easy, but it
brings pang to my heart which
your gentle letter Of the first inst
can not wholly alleviate.
Whenever hereafter you look upon
this tear-speckled pass will you not
think of me? Remember that You
have cast me from you and that am
wandering across the bleak and
wind-swept plains, sadly enumerst-
ing the ties Of my way to eternity.
do not say this to reproach you,
for fear that you care for another,
and SO we could not be happy again
together. But, oh ! do you pause to
fully comprehend the pang 1t costs
ntn m t1 MI NJ
pass with its conditions on the back ?
Could you see me even now, as /
write these lines, turning away ever
and anon, laying aside my trembling
pen to go and sit by the crate and |
shudder and weep, aud put out the
fire with my bitter tears, your heart |
would soften, and you would say
"Return, oh wanderer, returnl'
You do not say in yourletter that
have been false TO you, or that have |
grown cold. You do not charge mo
with infldelity, or failure to provide.
Yon simply say that it would be bet
ter for each to go his several ways,
forgetting that my several ways are
passing away, passing away.
1t is all very well for you 10 talk
about going Your several ways. You
have every facility for doing so, but
with me il is different. Several
years ago large North western cy-
clone and myself tried TO pass each
other on the same track. When the
wrecking crew found me l was in the
crotch Of butternut tree with a
broken leg. Since that time / have
walked with great difficulty, and to
go my several ways has been serl-
Gus matter with me.
But L do not want yon 10 think that
/ am murmuring. accept my doom
calmly, yet with slight tinge of un-
availing regret.
Some time perhaps, in the middle
of the dark and angry night, when
the cold blasts wall through the tele-
graph wires and the crashing sleet
rushes with wild and impetuous fury
against the windows of your special /,
car, as you lie warmly ensconced in
your voluptuous berth and hear the ,,
pltiless winds with hoarse and croupy
chase each other around the
Kansas haystacks or shrek wildly J
away as they light out for their cheer Z
less home in the Bad Lands, will you
not think of me as grope on blindly
through the keen and pitiless blasts,
Stumbling over cattleguards, falling
into culverts, and beating out my
rare young brains against your rough
right of way, will you not think of
me? i do not ask much of you, but 2
do ask this as we separate forever. q
AS you whiz by me do not treat me q
with contumely, or throw crackers at }
me when have meekly turned out
10 let your naughty old train go by. J
have always spoken of you in the q
highest terms and ] hope you will do :
The same by me.
Life is short at the best. and il is J
specially 30 for those who have to =
walk. Walking has already shorten
I'd my life great deal, and wouldn't
be surprised If the exposure and bun
ons of the year 1887 carried me OIL,
eaving gap in American literaturel n
hat will look like new cellar. h
Should amy of your engineers or
rack men iind me frozen in a cut. I,
iext winter when the grass gets short /,
md the nights get long, will you n
Kindly ask them TO report the brand q
o your auditor and instruct him to r.
lllow my family what he thinks a
would be right2 hate to write to a
'ou in this detected manner, but you G
:aanot understand how heavy MY .
leart is to-day as pen these lines. n
! wish you and your beautiful road h
success. II is good
Dad, for have passed over it and O
Djoyed 1t. How different the coun- 4
ry will look to me as l go bounding h
rom tie to tie, slowly repeating to d
myself the trite remark once made by /,
he Governor of North Carolina to /,
he executive of South Carolina! m
hope you may never know what q
I is to pull into the quaint little city h
If La Junta with the dust of many o /,
nile upon you aud the thirst of long D
lneventful journey IN your throat. "
rope that Congress will not pass u
aw next year which will make il n
ebony for railroad man to say ~
gosh" without permit. | hope that
our life will be chuck full of hurrah
nd halleluiah, even IL mine should
'e always bleak and joyless.
Can l do your road any good, eth al
r at home or abroad? Can be of OF
ervice to you over your right-of-way G
y collecting nuts, bolts, old iron or r
Their bric-a-brac? ] would be glad | Il
, influence immigration or pull